With the trade deadline coming and half the season complete, is it too early to talk buyers/sellers and what may happen? There could be some teams that are usually buyers, selling this year....like the Caps (I hope) and the Flyers (I hope more).

I think the flyers are in real trouble.. they've played more games than anyone in the East and are 3 points out of the playoffs. They arn't playing real good hockey right now either. The West seems to be a bit tighter and I don't think anyone there would really be a 'seller' until you get down to Colorado, Columbus, Edm and Cgy. The Flames have supposedly stated that they simply are not going to tear down and rebuild, (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion ... perry.html) so who the hell knows what they'd be willing to sell at this point.

Holmgrem never does anything small... I could actually see them selling/retooling at the deadline, maybe betting that their chances at a top 3 draft pick are better than a playoff spot. That might mean Briere (Vancouver?), Coburn, Tank.

It's tough if you're Philadelphia, if you start selling, you start shipping off pieces that you just acquired...that's not normally a good sign. They did just free up a contract slot by moving a minor leaguer to Columbus for futures...not sure if anyone wants to read anything into that or not...

Colorado has been trying to move an excess d-man for a little while now...they could stand to freshen up their lineup a little and add to their prospect pool, they have no forwards on the way and their forward depth now is fairly suspect in spots...it's a lot of patchwork it feels like, very few well-grounded, foundation pieces...

That's an organization that probably could be flushed out completely from top to bottom and be better off for it...

As of now, I don't see a lot of selling for a few reasons:- a lot of bad contracts- only a few teams clearly trending out of the playoffs- most teams trending out of the playoffs have young cores- only a couple of established teams that may go into rebuilding mode

It's way too early to count the Flyers out and it's hard to imagine they'll be sellers when/if they are. They are more likely to make a pre-deadline splash to right their ship. Holmgren might be talking to Calgary the most right now. They are also one of the few teams that have the combination of being a desirable destination and trade assets that could actually take a reasonable gamble on Perry.

If the Caps don't turn things around quickly, it'll be interesting to see where Mike Ribeiro goes.

MarioLives wrote:If the Caps are out of it, do you think there would be any chance to pry Brooks from them? I have always liked his game.

With the animosity Ted has for the Pens, I can't see this happening, even if both GMs wanted to.

pcm wrote:It will be interesting to see how the ability for teams to retain cap space in a trade will play out this deadline.

Likewise, with the upcoming amnesty buyouts, a team like the Pens could take on a bad contract and just buy the guy out this summer or next if things don't work out.

Is this possible? In the NBA, teams can only amnesty players on contract and on roster at the time the new CBA went into effect. So players obtained via trade after are ineligible. I assumed it was the same in the NHL, but I haven't researched it. I also assume if it were possible, we'd see it referenced in trade rumors.

Kraftster wrote:The flyers don't have anyone to sell. And they'll be close enough at the time of the deadline that they won't be selling even if they did.

Briere? He'd be a huge get and then buy-out at the end of the season. Not sure of terms but GM's have certainly made worse deals. Especially if you're a GM and think your team can go deep. A buy-out may be worth it.

I was listening to the Marek v Wyshynski podcast this afternoon and they had a Flyer beat writer on (Frank Seravalli). When asked about if/when Philly would become sellers, he mentioned that Edmonton inquired about Talbot.